How To Accelerate Your Dream Through The Dip

After letting my copy of Seth Godin’s “The Dip” gather dust on my coffee table for a few months. I know I had a grow a spine and read it.

Why did it take so long?

I had fair warning that this book will make you think. Hard. I gathered tissues, in case of emotional breakdowns, and a pillow for the angry outbursts and got down to it.

For 80 pages, this little book packs a punch.

“The Dip” describes what we ALL are doing daily, to pursue our lives. Specifically what we may not be willing to do to get were we want to be.

Q – U – I – T

What the hell?

My inner voice started screaming quotes about perseverance, stick-with-it inspirational speeches spewed out while I tried not to hurl the book across the room.

Trying to absorb "The Dip"

Then I let the messages sink in.

If the payment for your dream does not exceed the work it will take to make it through the Dip then quitting – as a tactic – will let you focus on things that will pay off.

“The Dip is the long slog between starting and mastery. A long slog that’s actually a shortcut, because it gets you where you want to go faster that any other path.”

But wait, you may counter, this is my my dream (job, career, business venture) and no one knows how important this is to me. There is no way I’m quitting.

Great! Then it is still paying off, rewarding you in some way.

But what if it’s not, and how do you know you are in the Dip?

My favorite question that Seth asks is “If I quit this task, will it increase my ability to get through the Dip on something more important?”

Is there another path you discovered? One that you can get focused results with faster?

It may be time to work on saying that “Q” word.

Let me be clear. This is not the excuse for not planning. The result of saying ‘Whoops! It just got hard, so its time to quit”. Seth actually has some incredible advice on that front.

“Never quit something with great long-term potential just because you can’t deal with the stress of the moment.”

I know that any of us who are actively pursuing our dream run across this feeling on a regular basis. And we also know…

“If it scares you, it might be a good thing to try.”

Over the next few weeks I’ll be putting these practices to use through Seth’s assignments. I am assigning myself homework, with the hope that my results may inspire some of you out there to quit. In a good way.

So tell me… when was the last time you were supposed to quit? Was it a job? A relationship? An investment?

Heather Montgomery is a fitness writer, triathlete, and blogger who is devoted to sharing what she has learned about becoming a triathlete after age 40. She uses her Metabolic Training Certification to help other women struggling to get fit in mid-life. She lives and trains in Santa Rosa, California, the new home of the Ironman triathlon. You can find her biking the Sonoma County wine trails.

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